The present invention relates to a new and distinct Cercis plant, botanically known as Cercis canadensis, commercially referred to as Eastern Redbud and hereinafter referred to by the name ‘JN21’.
The new Cercis plant is a product of a planned breeding program conducted by the Inventors in Belvidere, Tenn. The objective of the breeding program was to develop new Cercis plants with large attractive leaves and cold hardiness.
The new Cercis plant originated from an open-pollination of an unnamed selection of Cercis canadensis, not patented, as the female, or seed, parent with an unknown selection of Cercis canadensis as the male, or pollen, parent. The new Cercis plant was discovered and selected by the Inventors as a single plant within the progeny of the stated open-pollination in a controlled nursery environment in Belvidere, Tenn. in April, 2015.
Asexual reproduction of the new Cercis plant by chip budding onto a proprietary seedling Cercis rootstock in a controlled environment in Belvidere, Tenn. since September, 2015 has shown that the unique features of this new Cercis plant are stable and reproduced true to type in successive generations.